April 11th, Virginia Tech KTU exhibitors

"Virginia Tech Team Vertex"

Rovers are required to withstand the challenging terrain present on celestial bodies, as well as be able to accomplish scientific objectives while traversing such terrain. These two primary design objectives are precisely what the National Institute of Aerospace, in conjunction with NASA, has incorporated into the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage Exploration Robotic Operations Competition. NASA’s Rock Yard, located at Johnson Space Center, includes the Sand Dunes, Lunar Craters, Gravel Pit, Rock Yard, and finally Mars Hill, which all simulate extraterrestrial terrains. The accomplishment of scientific objectives is simulated by designing the Robo-Ops competition around the collection of colored rocks scattered about the terrain.



AOE RASC-AL Robo-Ops Virginia Tech



The main actors involved in this design process are the eight members of the design team, Justin Marut, Dong Yun Shin, Mike Fulton, Ronald Sisido, AJ Yost, Stephen Krauss, Hisham Ezaldeen, and Jesse Pedroni. Dr. Kevin Shinpaugh, the faculty advisor, for the design team has weekly meeting with the team and provides feedback and direction on design aspects and topics. Dr. Shinpaugh was the faculty advisor for the 2014 Virginia Tech RASC-AL Robo-Ops team that placed third overall, the first year of entering the competition. He is also the Director of IT, HPC, and Computing Services for the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. The Space@VT facility houses the main work laboratory that our team will be using to construct the rover. Team meetings are also held at this location.